Phases of reps

Knowing the phases of repetition will enable us to successfully monitor and manage the process and the errors in it. Most often the repetition is divided into three phases:

The positive part of the repeat (concentric phase)

 

The positive part of the repeat is the lifting of the weight. In it, the muscle fibers abate, trying to move the bones in a necessary way. When lifting from the leg, this is the moment when the lever is almost in your chest and you push the bar upwards, at the dead thrust you try to lift the bar from the ground or when standing upright. The very effort to pull or push the weight is the positive part of the repeat.

 

The higher the load, the greater the engagement of the muscle fibers, and the effect on growth due to the micro-breaks is greater, this also directly affects the force. For the concentric phase, the most important is the relationship between brain and muscle and concentration in performance.

The rate of performance of the positive part varies depending on your goals. Running at normal speed and under voltage engages the nervous system and is recommended for strength training and leads to strength stamina while explosive phase performance is more for power, but the most important thing here is to maintain proper movement and sustainability do not perform movements at an inappropriate speed to avoid injuries.

 

At this stage is the so-called "dead point", which is the point where the repetition is felt like the most difficult moment of movement. The exact "location" of the dead point depends on the specific genetics of the trainer, the length of the muscles, the bones, and so on. peculiarities. The dead end is primarily of interest to professionals as it is believed that its successful overcome makes the repetition perfect.

 

Retention phase at or at peak point (the peak contraction phase)

The peak contraction phase is the moment when the muscles directly affected by the exercise are maximally collapsed.

At this point, a large part of the load is absorbed by the bones and joints and the lifting position looks the most stable (this does not apply to all exercises). Delayed muscle restraint creates incentives to increase the number of active muscle fibers in the next iteration. This increases the muscle tone within and after the series. Holding within 2-3 seconds of repetition does not practically affect the power consumption.

 

For strength training, a longer pause may be allowed here to minimize fatigue and stress on the nervous system, the skeleton, and the joints, accustomed to weight as a normal load, discontinue overloads to the spinal cord and give the libertarian more freedom.

The negative part of the repeat (Eccentric phase)

 

The negative part is the phase of relaxation of the muscle with the weight. This phase is as important to muscle growth as the concentric phase but is often underestimated. In her, the nervous system excludes a large number of fibers in the muscles, and the rest remain active in passive flexion to relax the joint to its natural position under the influence of gravity.

For both force and training for hypertrophy, it is important that this phase is not performed quickly because the effect of good stress on it is also positive on muscle fibers and their growth and on the nervous system and strength as in the build-up of muscle mass this part of the repetition plays a more significant role.

 

Increasing the duration of the negative part is applied at the end of the series as a method of additional energy expenditure, an increase of muscle tone and maximum filling of blood.

Retention point before resting phase

If you stop relaxing your muscles and leave them slightly tight, but near the rest, you will further increase the muscular tone and incentives to fill the active muscles with blood.
If you stop abruptly in it and start new repeat lightning fast, the tight muscle will allow you to generate a starting force as a result of your elasticity.

 

Rest phase between repeats (final phase)

At this stage of the movement, the muscles rest and stretch. The fibers lose elasticity, the nervous system relaxes. Blood refers to a portion of lactic acid and the ability of the muscles to perform a new repeat increases.

As a final phase, we can add the muscle stretch phase, and in order to be able to view this phase as effective, it is avoided the participation of an assisting action, such as relaxing the bar on the chest at the leg.

In this peculiar stretch, the muscle is in the maximum stretched state and its ability to engage a large number of motor fibers is reduced. Thus effective muscle tissue load is limited to some key points.

The eight main factors in the repetition

• Speed (pace) - A slower performance leads to a better expansion of the physiological potential of muscles and the nervous system, explosivity is applied in specific methodologies, and can also be successful, but good technique is required for its application.
• Focus and consciousness - strong psyche and the ability to create appropriate attitudes are very important to the success

• Traffic range/amplitude - according to the objectives, the traffic amplitude can be shortened or complete. For example, a horizontal slit with a narrow triceps grip would have a big effect if you drop the bar to the chest and the weave shortens the amplitude of the movement.
• The negative and positive part
• Continuous tension - Keep your muscles in constant tension
• Cheating - Not always and everywhere, but it can be useful in certain exercises depending on goals.
• Reaching failure and pumping repetitions - sometimes repetition to failure can bring you many benefits. This type of stress strengthens hypertrophy and promotes the appearance of metabolites after a workout like lactic acid.
• Pain - Bodybuilders say they like the pain that the pain has done to them what they are. The pain is due to inflammation affecting the nerve and it can be dangerous because it can mean overloading the nervous system. But the different type of stress brings benefits to the trainer.

Final words

Sometimes the key to success lies in the little things. It is such a small part, but with a great impact is the repetition.